"The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure" (1967) TV series 1967-1968

Writers:

Seasons:

1

Release Date:

9 September 1967 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Family | Animation

Plot:

The animated adventures of several DC Comics superheroes.

Plot Keywords:

DC Comics | Superman | Superhero | Green Lantern | Hawkman

Cast

Paul Frees

...

Evil Star / ... (2 episodes, 1967)

Runtime:

60 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Filmation Associates

Trivia:

This marked the first animated appearances for all of the characters on the show except for Superman and Lois Lane, who had made their animated debut nearly 25 years earlier.

Goofs:

Continuity: Green Lantern normally wears his power ring on his right hand, but in several shots he is firing the ring from his left hand.

Quotes:

Blue Bolt: Earth again, where I have super speed, and this time I'll get revenge on The Flash by creating havoc all over his helpless world.

Movie Connections:

Version of "SuperFriends: The Legendary Super Powers Show" (1984)

What is so hard about the costumes?

I was in fourth grade, the thick of my comic-reading years, when this show came out. I couldn't believe my luck that my favorite DC heroes were now on TV.

The stories may seem corny now, but they were played straight, unlike the campy or downright comical Super Friends.

But some things really annoyed me. Most basically: What was so hard about getting the costumes right? Almost every character had such changes to his costume that even I at age 9 could notice (and still remember at age 44!).

1. The show gave Aquaman black boots. In the comic, he wore no boots, just the green tights.

2. The show gave Flash yellow gauntlets and a regular yellow belt. In the comic, he wears a yellow lighting belt and lightning bands around his forearms with red gloves.

3. The show reversed Kid Flash's color schemes.

4. The show gave Hawkman some kind of claw/glove on his right hand. It could emit beams of some kind. The comic Hawkman fought bare-handed, though sometimes with a mace. And he didn't have a pet hawk in the comics.

5. The Atom wore a plain blue shirt and trunks, broken by a black belt, instead of the comic's red and blue shirt, blue belt, and no trunks on red tights.

6. Green Lantern's costume came out unscathed. But he has this alien buddy Kiro instead of the Inuit buddy Pieface. Never figured that one.

7. We get Wonder Girl and Speedy in the Teen Titans, but we don't get Wonder Woman or Green Arrow in the Justice League of America. Go figure.

This show left me wondering for years whether Filmation got the rights to the characters, but not to all of the costumes. At least when Super Friends came out, they got the costumes right. And they gave us Wonder Woman, too!